
Brazil's civil aviation authority passed on Thursday the planned combination between Brazilian airline TAM and Chilean rival LAN with no restrictions, giving a boost to their project to create Latin America's largest airline and the third largest in the world.

Chile's LAN has announced an agreement with the Australian budget airline, Jetstar, owned by Quantas airways.

Brazilian incumbent presidential candidate Dilma Rousseff strongly supported Brazilian majority participation in airlines although admitted not having been in touch with last week’s announcement of a merge between Lan Chile and Tam Brazil to become the largest Latinamerican air carrier.